Stateline Western Australia

Dying with dignity in WA - MPs to take a conscience vote on new laws

REBECCA CARMODY (PRESENTER): It's a rare thing for our politicians to take a vote of conscience but an opportunity will soon present itself to state MPs. The Attorney General Jim McGinty is preparing to introduce a bill next week, which will give people the option to hasten their death by refusing medical treatment. The bill will also enable people to appoint a power of attorney to make decisions on their behalf, about their treatment, should they be incapacitated. Mr McGinty says it's not about voluntary euthanasia. It's about providing greater choice and protecting health professionals from legal action. But the Greens believe voluntary euthanasia is exactly what the bill should be about. Layla Tucak reports.

KAREN SPANBROEK: Cheeky very cheeky, followed his grandfather everywhere, yeah he was very cheeky little boy.

BILL SPANBROEK: And he was a BMX champion.

KAREN SPANBROEK: Had a passion for history.

BILL SPANBROEK: He also served in the Navy Cadets here and at East Fremantle and so he had a sort of desire to joint the navy and come hell or high water he was going to join.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): When Karen and Bill Spanbroek watched their son endure the last five weeks of his life it broke their hearts.

KAREN SPANBROEK: No one should be allowed in today's times to go in such a suffering state. It was pointless.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): Michael was diagnosed with the very aggressive Juvenile Huntington's Disease at nineteen. Over the years the disease took a stronger hold until finally his brain haemmorraged and doctors said he wouldn't pull through an operation. But he survived longer than people thought.

KAREN SPANBROEK: If I had know michael was going to last so long, in that terrible state, I probably would've opted that they operate and hoped that he died on the table. He'd been through enough.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): Michael was just 29 when he finally died, a shadow of his former self. Next week new legislation will be introduced to parliament by Attorney General Jim McGinty. Called the Advance Health Care Planning Bill, it could prevent situations like the Spanbroek's in the future.

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): It's about respecting their wishes to make sure that they die or receive medical treatment in the way in which they would like to be treated.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): Under the proposed legislation people can make a 'living will' to decide what medical treatment they want - even refusing it to hasten their death. And, it allows people to appoint someone to make treatment decisions on their behalf, should they lose the capacity to do so themselves. The legislation also aims to give health professionals protection from legal action, and it'll all be overseen by the State Administrative Tribunal. Mr McGinty says similar leglisation has been in place for years in other states and the UK, but is complicated and has a low take up rate. He says WA's is a more contemporary, simplified version.

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): I think things like having an electronic database of all living wills, using general practitioners, people in nursing homes, getting out into the community through an advertising campaign would help in the high take up I hope we get with our legislation here in Western Australia.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): Are you satisfied that there's enough in the legislation to protect people from those with ill intent?

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): When you're dealing with very human things, like life and death you can never 100 percent rule out there won't be somebody who will have evil intent or bad motives. But, there'll be an ability for the treating staff to go to an independent tribunal and have that decision reviewed.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): For the Spanbroeks it's important the legislation gets through.

BILL SPANBROEK: How Michael suffered over a period of five weeks I would, we would not wish anyone else to experience that suffering and people should have a choice to say I don't want to suffer.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): What Mr McGinty is adamament about is that this is not a path to voluntary euthanasia.

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): Euthanasia is about taking positive steps to terminate a human life, this bill does not allow that to occur.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): But not everyone is convinced the legislation is foolproof. Archbishop Barry Hickey, a fierce critic of voluntary euthanasia, has personal reservations.

BARRY HICKEY (CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF PERTH): I don't think this is personally very necessary. However if it's going to be debated as indeed it will be then we have to make sure that it closes the door to euthanasia. For that reason the wording of the bill and the act when it comes into force must be very very carefully phrased.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): While Mr McGinty insists it's not a euthanasia bill, if the greens have their way that's exactly what it's likely to become...

GIZ WATSON (GREENS WA): If this legislation isn't strong enough which we believe it's probably won't be we would certainly look to move amendments. We want to be able to allow people to choose to die with dignity and that means the option of voluntary euthanasia.

BARRY HICKEY (CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF PERTH): This is about the dignity of the life of every human being and the sanctity of life. The legislation that we have at the moment protects that and I think if that's at stake this a very very troubling moment.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): In 2002 Greens MP Robin Chapple introduced a Private Members Bill on voluntary euthanasia into parliament. Back then, it was rejected. Giz Watson says now, with consistently high polling in favour of euthanasia, the time is right.

GIZ WATSON (GREENS WA): The debate has moved on and I think the polling says that the community wants the choice of voluntary euthanasia. That debate has moved forward and the climate is right for the full debate of that type of legislation.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): Polling has consistently showed in WA around seventy percent of people in general are in favour of euthanasia, why have you not gone down that track?

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): I think that there are very significant problems with the state becoming involved in sanctioning the taking of human life.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): When state m-ps come together to consider the bill and any amendments they'll be taking a conscience vote. That's not something that happens often in WA. The last conscience vote was on cloning and before that in the 1990s it was abortion.

JIM MCGINTY (ATTORNEY GENERAL AND HEALTH MINISTER): This is a debate the parliament must have. What you'll see is every member of parliament put on their on mettle to justify, what they think what their values are, what they think the values of their constituents are and its then up to the parliament to determine the shape of the legislation. I for one won't be supporting any amendments that relate to euthanasia.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): From the Archbishop comes a word of warning.

BARRY HICKEY (CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF PERTH): People don't normally make the distinction between allowing someone to die and actively killing somebody. There's an enormous, big distinction between the two. This is a very crucial bill and we'll be watching very closely.

LAYLA TUCAK (REPORTER): And the Spanbroek's have a message too.

KAREN SPANBROEK: Commonsense is in this paper here, I think there's a lot of commonsense. And they should use their commonsense when they're voting on it and not their religious beliefs.